So reading up on Marks Sharpologist reviews on the synth brushes, and a tip off from Gary I won me a H.I.S brush out of the deal, and im excited to get it

now its the countdown, waiting for the postman to drop off my new brush.
I was looking at getting on for myself given the great price point, but held off to see what would happen with contest not only did i win but won the same brush i was going to get for myself thats a pretty great thing to happen

I was out with a fellow member today for lunch and he brought me a SOC to show me, i thought wow that thing is pretty big... he then explained the H.I.S was even bigger, now im a little worried i dont have the intestinal fortitude to handle such a manly beast,... but ill give it my best shot.

(08-19-2012, 07:34 PM)syngent Wrote: So reading up on Marks Sharpologist reviews on the synth brushes, and a tip off from Gary I won me a H.I.S brush out of the deal, and im excited to get it

now its the countdown, waiting for the postman to drop off my new brush.
I was looking at getting on for myself given the great price point, but held off to see what would happen with contest not only did i win but won the same brush i was going to get for myself thats a pretty great thing to happen

I was out with a fellow member today for lunch and he brought me a SOC to show me, i thought wow that thing is pretty big... he then explained the H.I.S was even bigger, now im a little worried i dont have the intestinal fortitude to handle such a manly beast,... but ill give it my best shot.

Im hoping for tomorrow ! guess we can only wait and see

Let the countdown begin

For what I understand,the H.I.S is a monster of a brush.
Looking to read your impressions about the brush.Eventually Ill try it and get mine too.

Fantastic story! I didn't think I would like it and actually didn't like the first shave with it. Then I discovered one needs to use it differently than other brushes.

For me, that means plunging the brush into a mug with water for a few seconds and then a gentle finger squeeze to get rid of excess water. I am then ready to load the brush and face lather any method (soap puck, cream, shave stick).

It's a great brush, a monster, but I love it. I'm a big guy with large hands so it works very well for me, but I can see how it can be unweildly for someone w/ smaller hands. I would like to see them eventually offer a wider range of handle/ knot/ loft sizes bc the bristle technology is great. Looking forward to your review.

Well my neighbour told me there is a box on the porch man I'm excited hopefully it's the brush
Have a new razor to try out tonight (1912 SE) would be nice to have the brush to play with too
Think its a cade kind of night

The synthetic brushes, even with bigger knots, seem to work differently for me. The big knots somehow seem smaller.
Even though the H.I.S appears huge, once you take it to your face, it's easy to maneuver and you can basically cut the amount of product you use in half. The lather it generates is amazing!

Okay so the brush got here, boy was this a tough wait.
It is big as big as people say, it has some heft to it, i havent used it long enough to know whether i like that or not yet but we will visit that as i have more time to use it,
the tips are soft, and the brush has enough back bone to it for me to use on my many soaps
the hairs certainly have that synthetic feel to them and we will come to that later

here you can see it tower over my Kent BLK4 and my T&H Pure size one

I did some initial palm lathers with Cade, MWF, KK, Cumba Cheech, and The GR... just to cover many different types of products out there

so lets get started with the trials shall we
First up cade, a warm wet brush shaken out a bit, and 20 second swirl on the puck

first thing i noticed was i should have used a bowl as this brush is a bit big for the palm, i had soap lather all over the sink as i had trouble keeping it in the hand,....

after 30 seconds of working it up and a squeeze from the brush i had more then enough for how i shave, it was a wee bit dry but i could have easily worked it into shape

MWF was next, same 20 seconds on the puck

again i lost more to the sink but after about 45 seconds
for something that is supposed to be hard to lather (i havent had this issue in a while though) it came out okay very quickly, again a bit dry but could have fixed that if i were shaving with it easy enough
Next up the Cumba Cheach, this time since it was a soft soap i only swirled for 10 seconds

and this stuff exploded in my palm, half of what i built fell into sink and i could have added quite a bit more water and gotten a lot more out of this

the GR i scooped just over a pea sized amount into palm, about 2/3rd the almond sized amount
i forgot to flick the brush and it was far to wet, but it still gave me usable lather
a bit runny, but it would have held up for a shave
and finally the KK, after 15 seconds i stopped loading as it was about to burst out of its holder

and gave me a tonne of lather which was pretty much like the rest and a bit dry

Final thoughts,

I think most of the dry part had more to do with how well it picked the product up and needing less of it, then the brush not retaining enough water, i could have used less then what i did to get enough lather for my shaves out,..

It builds quickly but would be better on the face or in a larger bowl then the surface of my palm, or a smaller scuttle like a DB 1.0 as it is a bigger brush

The bristles have super soft tips but still have that synthetic feel to them, i dont think it would ever replace what i like out of my badgers, but im glad to have it in rotation at least for now i do need to spend some more time with this brush to see how i truely feel about its weight and size, as well as the feeling

But off the hand i like it alot, specially if it can save me money on products by using a lot less of them,

the brush feels quality made, although it looks kind of funny not having a label on it, it has thus far lived up to my expectations of what it could do from the things i have read on it here, and during the trials on sharpologists blog

if this were just me borrowing the brush and i had to send it back, for the price of them i would certainly buy one for myself, and i think it would be a safe bet for anyone to pick one up for themselves if they are looking for a good brush on the cheap

ill use the brush and this one alone over at least a week if not two, and report back my thoughts at that point as well

Enjoy it James. If I owned one I would either be trading it, PIFing it, or keeping it in my car to be used as a nightstick.

It definitely creates lather well enough, but I found it to be just too large to use comfortably and enjoyably. Chop the handle down a good bit, drop the loft quite a bit and then it'll be something I could use, but probably already own from another company.

James, thanks for the review. i also had one and even though i loved the bursh, it was just too large for me and i had to sell it.
Here is a thread i just posted about some possible good news concerning this brush, or the company that makes it: